APPALLING

Posted at 8:13 p.m. ET

One of the great underreported stories of this campaign is the attempt by allies of Barack Obama to suppress free speech.  We know about the attempts to pressure radio station WGN of Chicago into dropping an interview with a journalist investigating Obama's association with unrepentant bomb thrower Bill Ayers.  We know about attempts to pressure Democrats into boycotting Fox News.  We know about not-very-subtle messages sent out by officials in Missouri essentially hinting at prosecution of those who wrongly criticize The One.

Now comes something else, as reported by the Washington Post, hardly an opponent of Barack Obama.  The action takes place in Prince George's County, Maryland, the nation's wealthiest mostly black community.  This is pretty chilling stuff: 

The sign went up Sunday evening, bold black letters against the stark white background of the marquee at the Colony South Hotel & Conference Center in Clinton: "Country First. McCain/Palin."

By daybreak, pandemonium had broken loose all across heavily Democratic Prince George's County. Many local supporters of Democrat Barack Obama, jolted by the message as they headed down Branch Avenue on their Monday morning commutes, grabbed cellphones and BlackBerrys to notify friends. Operators of neighborhood e-mail group lists cried foul to their memberships. The NAACP logged calls. Community leaders demanded boycotts of the hotel, a common venue for Democratic events.

"Businesspeople have to be mindful of the sentiments and sensibilities of their market trading area, and Prince George's County is overwhelmingly for Obama," said community activist Arthur Turner of Kettering, who was among those advocating a boycott. "People I have talked to look at the sign as a slap in the face. They feel it was blatant disrespect. . . . I have heard people say they will no longer patronize Colony South because of that disrespect."

Remarkable.  And this is a free society?  Apparently, you can put up a political sign only if the "community" agrees with its sentiments.

The marquee supporting the GOP ticket in "an area that is strongly African American was like putting a stink bomb in the middle of the living room," said University of Maryland political science Professor Ron Walters.

Ron Walters?  I know the gent's work.  He's a defender of Louis Farrakhan and a supreme racialist.  No great wisdom there.  As a professor, he should be defending free speech.

Colony South General Manager Alan Vahabzadeh said that the hotel, one of several Washington area businesses that has dared to venture into the political thicket, got the message after about 100 phone calls and three dozen e-mails. The sign came down Wednesday afternoon.

Another triumph for political correctness.  Can you imagine if public pressure forced a business in a white area to take down a sign favoring a black candidate?  All the "major media" would be in an uproar...and I'd join the uproar.

I'm afraid this is what we can expect if The One is elected.  He won't apply the pressure himself.  It's his legions who will do it.  I can imagine what the condition of free speech will be in our universities - and in our nation's newsrooms - a year from today.

Maybe we won't be permitted to ask.

October 16, 2008.